The merging of two flats in a listed Chelsea townhouse by reinstating a staircase between them has been allowed, after Inspector Roger Catchpole ruled that the benefit of restoring the building’s historic layout outweighed the loss of separate housing units, and the reinstatement of the staircase would ‘enhance the architectural interest of the building, by restoring it to something more akin to the original layout’.

The inspector concluded that despite the policy conflict the ‘substantial benefits arising from the enhancement of the listed building’ carried more weight and the appeal was allowed.